Our team brings a wealth of experience advising creators on cutting-edge & high-risk content
OUR TEAM
We work collaboratively & creatively with creators
Prash Naik
Founder
Prash is the former General Counsel for Channel 4 Television in the UK. He began his career in London working in private practice before being recruited by Channel 4 where he spent 23 years. He was appointed Channel 4’s first General Counsel.
Prash played a key role in creative risk-taking at Channel 4 and is much sought after as the “go-to” lawyer to defend and get challenging content to air.
He has advised across many groundbreaking films including: My Year Undercover in Reform, Silenced, Grenfell: Uncovered, Gaza Doctors Under Attack, Undercover: Exposing the Far Right, Kill List: Hunted by Putin’s Spies and Cambridge Analytica Uncovered.
Prash acts as legal counsel for producers and filmmakers on productions for Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Disney, Discovery, Sky Documentaries, National Geographic, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and film festivals.
Prash is highly regarded as an expert crisis management advisor. He has advised at executive and board level on many high-profile cases ranging from press controversies to kidnap & ransom.
Prash acts as General Counsel to the Doc Society a non-profit foundation based in London, New York, Amsterdam, and Sydney supporting independent documentary filmmakers globally.
He is also a non-executive director of the Doc Society Foundation, and a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Prash is a dual qualified solicitor admitted in England & Wales, and Australia.
Emily Barber
Founder
Emily is a highly experienced content lawyer advising across television, digital, film, audio and publishing. Emily started her career in private practice in a top tier media litigation team, before being recruited to join Channel 4’s award winning Legal & Compliance team in 2011. Emily has been instructed as legal counsel for broadcasters, SVoDs, podcasters and independent producers on productions for Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Sky, Discovery, BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five and film festivals since 2019.
Emily has extensive experience advising at every stage of production, from development to broadcast, across all genres including, complex factual documentaries; filming with emergency services and specialist police units; political programming; undercover investigations; film; factual and fictional drama; satirical comedy; entertainment (including dating shows and set-ups); studio shows and live broadcasts.
Emily is commended by clients for her collaborative, in-house lawyer approach, her in-depth consideration of issues and pragmatic solutions. Emily has worked with leading production companies, content producers, streamers and broadcasters on high-profile and BAFTA award-winning programmes and assists programme makers in finding creative solutions to issues, to confidently broadcast challenging, innovative content.
Examples of some of the projects Emily has advised on include, Libby Are You Home Yet?; Joe Lycett vs David Beckham; Sex Education (s.2-4); Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams; Top Boy (S.2&3); Late Night Lycett; Epstein’s Shadow Ghislaine Maxwell; Kipchoge: The Last Milestone; Three Identical Strangers; 24 Hours In Police Custody; The Tribe; Gogglebox.
Sandhiya Sophie Argent
Founder
Sophie is a highly regarded media content lawyer, who has worked in a variety of media organisations for 15 years. Sophie's experience includes working for the media regulator, Ofcom, and as a programme lawyer in the award-winning Channel 4 Legal and Compliance team. Sophie was also a senior lawyer at ITN, taking the lead for Channel 4 News, which she continues to do as a consultant.
To date, Sophie has advised on a number of acclaimed series, across all genres, including; First Dates, 24 Hours in Police Custody, Gogglebox, Hollyoaks, The Elon Musk Show, Race around Britain with Munya Chawawa, Three Mothers, Two Babies and One Scandal and Harry and Meghan.
Sophie’s advice ranges from; viewings for legal and Ofcom compliance issues, script reviews and clearance advice, drafting in-depth protocols covering Ofcom compliance, legal and ethical issues such as duty of care and welfare considerations, hostile environment filming protocols and legal opinions for Errors and Omissions Insurance.
Sophie advises at all stages of production, including development, where she is often an effective sounding board for developing ideas pre-commission, to signpost potentially tricky legal and regulatory issues.
Sophie has also advised on legal and policy matters, such as online safety and SLAPPs. Sophie has spoken at conferences, in the UK and abroad, about journalist safety and free expression, and is regularly requested to train journalists and programme makers on media law. Sophie was previously a trustee for the Rory Peck Trust and is engaged in issues that affect freelance journalists.
In 2026, Sophie was appointed to the board of the Documentary Film Council, a charitable co-operative and the UK’s first national membership organisation for the UK documentary film industry.
Sophie was awarded an LLM in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice at SOAS and she enjoys applying her developing knowledge in this field to programmes covering human rights abuses and international affairs more broadly. Sophie remains passionate about helping creatives make innovative content for all genres and mediums and has often been praised for being calm, approachable and the ability to simplify more complex issues that also require nuance and good judgement.
Jo Vale
Consultant Solicitor
Jo brings a unique perspective to Creators Counsel, combining more than a decade of specialist content legal advice with a background in television production and journalism.
As a senior lawyer in ITV’s Legal & Content Compliance team, Jo advised commissioning editors, in-house and independent producers on how to get ambitious, high-stakes programming successfully on screen, supporting production teams across all genres from the early stages of development through to transmission.
Jo understands the creative process and the real-world pressures that producers face every day, having spent over 20 years as a journalist and TV producer. Jo was a BBC executive producer before she retrained and joined a private media law practice where she advised newspapers on pre- and post-publication legal compliance, defendant litigation and data protection.
In 2017 Jo joined ITV where she advised across a broad range of genres, from factual drama, factual and investigative documentaries, news and current affairs and ‘blue light’ programmes to comedy and ‘live’ studio entertainment shows. She is recognised by clients for her collaborative, pragmatic approach, working together to support and defend challenging content.
Jo has worked with leading producers on a wide variety of high-profile and ground-breaking programmes. Some notable credits include factual dramas Stonehouse, Breathtaking and The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, powerful documentaries including International Emmy Award-winning In Cold Blood, BAFTA-winning The Missing Children and investigative documentaries Children of the Cult and Breaking Ranks: Inside the IDF; as well as The British Airways Killer, Boris Becker: The Rise and Fall, and entertainment programmes including Spitting Image and The John Bishop Show.
Emily Blacklock
Consultant Solicitor
Emily is a media and content lawyer with over ten years’ experience working in-house alongside creative teams across documentary, factual, entertainment, film and digital content.
Emily advises on all content related legal and compliance issues from development and throughout production, including defamation, privacy, contempt, copyright (including fair dealing), contributor and access issues, duty of care, rights and clearances. Emily’s approach is collaborative and practical, helping programme makers find creative solutions to difficult issues whilst also protecting them.
Emily has spent her career in-house with roles at Netflix, Aardman Animations, Blink Industries, ITV, Whisper Films, Betty and VICE Media, which has given her a strong understanding of the needs and pressures of production. As a senior production lawyer across VICE Media’s EMEA businesses, Emily worked closely with producers and editorial teams on a high volume of fast-turnaround documentaries, short-form films and digital content. She advised teams from development through to publication, helping them navigate editorial and legal issues while finding practical ways to tell challenging stories. Projects included London’s Knife Crime Emergency: On a Knife Edge, Hate Thy Neighbour and High Society.
Examples of recent projects with Creators Counsel include: Handcuffed: Last Pair Standing, Groomed: The Truth Behind the Lie, Hunting the Yorkshire Ripper, A Killer’s Confession, Convicting My Ex and NFL Big Game Night Live.
Contact:
info@creatorscounsel.media
JL Advisors Limited
t/a Creators Counsel
John Eccles House,
Robert Robinson Avenue,
Oxford, OX4 4GP